Laurel O'Hare Philidelphia Blog Post

Laurel O'Hare 

Prompt #1:

Andrew Beckett, fired from a law firm because he had AIDs, and was gay. Under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment, that is unconsititutional, and violated that amendment. To quote the amendment, "...nor shall any State [...] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". In Mr. Becketts case, he did not have equal protection under the law, and therefor had a right to sue for wrongful termination and a violation of the constitution. 

Prompt #2:

The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to marriage as one of the fundamental liberties that it protects. The equal protection part comes in in terms of protecting same-sex couples the same as a heterosexual couple. According to Oyez on the Case Obergefell V. Hodges, "Marriage rights have traditionally been addressed through both parts of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the same interrelated principles of liberty and equality apply with equal force to these cases; therefore, the Constitution protects the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry." Thus the fourteenth amendment includes same-sex marriage in its relm of protection.